Two Killed in Colorado Avalanches

The two other skiers, who extricated themselves and were in telephone contact with the authorities, had uncovered the buried skier and had started CPR. They still needed to be rescued from the avalanche area on the west-facing slope that drains into the Maroon Creek Valley, the sheriff’s office said.

Responders from Mountain Rescue Aspen and the Aspen Highlands Ski Patrol worked to access the area.

Aspen ski patrol rescuers asked one of the skiers “to hike far enough up the mountainside” so they could get a rope to pull that person uphill, the sheriff’s office said on Sunday night. The other skier had stopped CPR efforts by the time rescuers reached the area, shortly after 4:30 p.m., the statement added.

All three skiers had completed avalanche safety training and were carrying and using safety equipment, the authorities said.

Mr. Házas’ remains were transported by helicopter to the Aspen/Pitkin County Airport on Sunday afternoon and from there to the county coroner’s office for an autopsy. The other skier was rescued in that flight.

That avalanche came after another one on Friday in which a man was killed and two other people had to be rescued a little over 20 miles west, in Rapid Creek, southwest of Marble, Colo.

The man killed in that avalanche was identified as Joel Shute, 36, of Glenwood Springs, Colo., the Gunnison County Sheriff’s Office said on Facebook.

Family and friends described Mr. Shute as a man who loved the outdoors. “He was literally born to ski,” Lisa Gerstner, his mother, told the television station KDVR.

Officials said Mr. Shute was one of two skiers and a splitboarder — someone using a snowboard that is split into halves — who were caught in an avalanche near Chair Mountain, about a 75-minute drive from Aspen.

Mr. Shute’s body was recovered on Saturday, buried in about four feet of avalanche debris, the Colorado Avalanche Information Center said in a preliminary accident report.

The other two men with him were injured, but one was able to hike out of the backcountry to seek help, the report said. The other skier was rescued by helicopter on Friday, the center said.

The center has so far recorded a total of nine deaths, out of 17 people caught in avalanches in the 2022-23 season. That toll compares with seven deaths, out of 20 people caught in avalanches in the 2021-22 season.